re: Baseball Recruiting Discussion

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South Carolina baseball has made its name largely on in-state players and another one joined the fold on Monday night. Class of 2015 right-handed pitcher Harrison Smith (Mount Pleasant/Wando) made a verbal pledge to Gamecocks head coach Chad Holbrook becoming the eighth member of the recruiting class.

Smith was receiving interest from a lot of in-state schools, including Clemson, The Citadel, and Winthrop.

“I’ve always been waiting for that opportunity,” Smith said. “It’s the best baseball program in the country. The coaching staff is great and everything is just real appealing to me. I fell in love with everything when I visited.”

“We walked around The Horseshoe and we were talking the whole time about my future there and everything that they expected of me,” Smith said. ”We went to the stadium, the locker room, met with the coaches and I just loved everything about the visit.”

“I’m very aggressive as a pitcher,” Smith said. ”I like to work inside a lot. I like to get ahead of hitters so I can throw my breaking ball. I like to blow my fastball by people.”

“I want to become a more complete pitcher,” Smith said. ”I have to master all my pitches and be able to throw them all for strikes. I need to develop my changeup more, because that’s my weakest pitch right now. I still have work to do.”

Smith is the eighth member of the 2015 class and is the third right-handed pitcher joining Cody Morris (Laurel, Md./Reservoir) and Kaleb Bowman (Purcellville, Va./Woodgrove).

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